Agriculture Society believes in a sustainable and environmentally safe world where our living habits work in accordance with nature through the promotion of ecologically sound choices and actions. Our intent is to bring useful and timely information to the local and wider communities about health, nutrition, medicine and available alternatives.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

April is Autism Awareness Month

Do you have a child who suffers from or do you know a child with autism? Have you ever wondered just how a child becomes autistic? Many people have had this same curiosity, and for years the medical community has chosen to treat autism as a disease with medication. Does medication really solve the problems of autism? Some people say no, and in the case of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, parents of son Evan, their journey into finding out what causes autism and the cure they discovered may be quite surprising.

According to McCarthy, when their son was diagnosed with "the disease" some years ago, the community was not very open to looking at alternative measures for their son's illness. It was all about medication and drugs. But when McCarthy and Carrey decided to take another path, they learned some very interesting things - if they removed as many toxins as they possibly could from their son's food, environment, and so on, a magical thing happened - his symptoms began to disappear. Soon, doctors and medical professionals were renegotiating on the original diagnosis and stating that their son never had autism. How could this be?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism is a debilitating disorder suffered by 1 in 150 kids, making it more common than childhood cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Many people don't realize that in the last 20 years, vaccination rates have more than tripled. In the 80s children were required to 10 vaccines by age 5. Today, they are administered 36 immunizations in most cases by age 2. It is beginning to seem as though the vaccine campaign is turning into one of the biggest money-making schemes in existence - with little to no consideration on actual prevention.

Proponents of this notion don't believe autism is caused by vaccines alone - but rather that vaccinations are, in many cases, a final tipping point that sends young bodies already in turmoil overload from toxins and irritants from their environment and diet into overdrive. To make a real difference and effect a reversal of autism, considerations would be to:

alter the schedule of vaccines

reduce the number of shots given

eliminate certain ingredients that could be toxic to some children (the major ingredient in vaccinations for removal would be thimerosol).

There would certainly be a chance that some children could still react even if all these steps were taken. But with the overwhelming amount of chemicals and toxins in the environment, food, and drugs and the success achieved by numerous parents who have tried removal of these substances when nothing else worked, it seems a mute point not to make a change.

Jenny McCarthy's web site, GenerationRescue.org lists the four most critical items which need to be addressed to reduce symptoms of autism:

1. Bring down the toxin load2. Help the gut heal by detoxification, supplementation, and elimination of irritants3. Increase nutrients in the diet4. Remove heavy metals and other toxins which can exacerbate and feed symptoms

These suggestions are also offered to parents of autistic children:

Remove casein (dairy) and gluten (wheat) from the diet

Remove any other food allergens from the diet

Eliminate processed foods and refined sugars including but not limited to trans fatty acids, MSG, artificial colors/flavors preservatives, and other excitotoxins, nitrates, aspartame, Nutrasweet, and anything you cannot pronounce or do not know what it is

Eliminate the use of fluoride toothpaste

Make certain your child's diet includes Omega 3 essential fatty acids in the form of something such as cod liver oil. Good dietary sources include organic, raw dairy, grass-fed meats, safe deep sea fish such as salmon, and ground flaxseeds

For more on the movement that is attempting to "green" vaccines and for additional information about how widespread autism has become and what you can do about it, visit Jenny McCarthy's web site: GenerationRescue.org